NEW HAVEN, Conn.— Lawyers for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel say keeping him in prison while he awaits a new trial in the 1975 slaying of neighbor Martha Moxley “would be a miscarriage of justice of the highest order.”

Skakel’s attorney, Hubert Santos, wrote in a legal brief Monday that a judge who overturned Skakel’s murder conviction last week has the authority to grant him bail.

Connecticut Judge Thomas Bishop ruled that Skakel’s trial attorney, Michael Sherman, failed to adequately represent him when he was found guilty in 2002 in the golf club bludgeoning of Moxley when they were 15 in wealthy Greenwich.

Bridgeport State’s Attorney John Smriga has said prosecutors will appeal both the decision and the request for bond.